The meeting will be led by Davide Sighele, journalist for the Balkan Observatory, a web information portal on Southeast Europe.
“For me, Bulgaria has always been a magical country that I knew little about. I used to receive small gifts from Bulgaria, which I kept. I have always had the impression that it was a land of beauty. For my father, it is very different. He had to leave Bulgaria, and this is a very difficult memory for him. From the very beginning, he wanted to become French as quickly as possible. When I started dealing with Bulgaria, I encountered his resistance…”
Sophie Tabakov
A French dancer of Bulgarian exiles, and a writer from Zagreb now residing in Trieste. This is the essence of the meeting with Sophie Tabakov and Melita Richter. It is a highly relevant reflection as many Balkan countries are currently in the difficult transition between a past of violence, isolation, and nationalism, and a gradual re-engagement with Europe to which they belong. As long as the memories of the communities living there remain divided, and until there is an effort to process the conflict, the ghosts of the past risk continuing to haunt the present of these lands.
But Europe itself cannot conceive of itself without the Balkans. Because the Balkans represent that in-between Europe, a crucial place to refute and dismantle the “clash of civilizations” that risks becoming the cornerstone of international relations in the coming decades.
